Illiteracy Impacts Senior Health Community

It doesn't matter whether you use conventional medicine alone or complement it with alternative medicine, you must ask many questions, take notes, and ask for help IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

How many times have you found you had to call back the doctor's office for them to re-explain the directions for the medication you are supposed to take. What if you are supposed to use more than one form of treatment or supplement?

It gets complicated for seniors, in particular, said ABC News in their report, "What You Can't Read Can Kill You."

Northwestern University researchers interviewed more than 3000 Medicare patients aged 65 plus asking about their lifestyles and medical conditions. Then they all took a literacy test.

Five years later researchers matched the names of the people who had died against the names of those most illiterate and found that there is a direct correlation between the two.

In other words: "low health literacy was a strong predictor for early death, second only to smoking, surpassing income level and years of education."

And according to the report, more than 75 million Americans in 2003 only had basic or below basic health literacy.

So stay connected and read anything: blogs, newspapers, books. It just might save your life.